Monday, July 15, 2013

Authorities have arrested a Latino doctor on suspicion of carrying out two attacks in Omaha in May 2013 and in 2008 in which four people were killed who had ties to Creighton University's medical school, which fired him twelve years ago

Dr. Anthony Garcia, who now lives in Terre Haute, Indiana, was arrested by Illinois State Police while driving near the Indiana border, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said. Officers said that he appeared to be intoxicated when they arrested him, and he had a .45-caliber handgun with him. Garcia, 40, is being held on suspicion of four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of using a weapon to commit a felony, Schmaderer said. Public records show that since 2003, Garcia has held medical licenses in California, Illinois and Indiana, but his temporary Indiana license expired in January 2013. Investigators believe that Garcia was responsible for an attack in May 2013 in which pathology professor Roger Brumback was shot to death and his wife, Mary, was fatally stabbed, Schmaderer said. They also believe that Garcia was behind a 2008 home invasion in which the 11-year-old son and family housekeeper of another Creighton pathology department professor, William Hunter, were stabbed to death. Roger Brumback and William Hunter fired Garcia from his pathology resident position in the department in 2001 for displaying erratic behavior, Schmaderer said. He said that the task force of local, state and FBI investigators believe that Garcia fits all the criteria of a serial killer. "We didn't feel this individual would stop unless an arrest was made," Schmaderer said. Schmaderer said that the task force investigating this case is in the process of searching several places where Garcia lived since 2001, but officers believe that he acted alone. The attacks happened in Omaha neighborhoods where homicides are rare. The city averages about 40 per year.

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